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THE PARTY OF FREEDOM AND ITS 
CANDIDATES. 



The Duty of the Colored Voter. 



Fablislied by the Unioii SepabUcan Oongressional Committee, WaaMngtoa, D. C 



^aH Lxj^ 




THE EMANCIPATOR, 

Assassinated April 14, 1865. 



,^ 



ftS^S S. G^ 




HIS SUCCESSOR, 

Will be elected President November 3, 1868. 



The following is a dialogue between a 
tiewly-made citizen and a Radical Republi- 
can. The new voter is seeking light upon 
the subject of .his political duties ; his Rad- 
ical friend gives him plain fac-ts, and demon- 
strates clearly with which party all like him 
should act. It would be well for colored 
voters generally to seek out some tried Radi- 
cal and question him upon all subjects about 
\v;hich they have any doubt : 
\ 

^^ THE DIALOGUE. 

Question. With which party should the 
colored miili vote ? 

Answer. The Union Republican party. 

Q. Why should the colored man vote with 
that party ? 

A. Because that party made him free and 
Las given him the right to vote. 

Q. Was Mr. Lincoln a Republicui. ? 

A. lie was a Republican Presidtui. , 

Q. Are Republicans in favor of universal 
freedom ? 

A. They are. 

Q. Are the Radicals and Republicans one 
I aiyd tne same party ? 



A. Yes; and they are in favor of freedom 
and universal justice. 

Q. What is the meaning of the word Rad- 
ical as applied to political parties and poli- 
ticians ? 

A. It means one who is in favor of goin* 
to the root of things: who is thoroughly in 
earnest; v/ho desired that shivery should b« 
abolished, that every disability connected 
therewith should be oblilerated, not only 
from national laws but from those of every 
State in the Union. 

Q. To which party do the friends of the 
colored men in Congress belong? 

A. To the Republican Party. 

Q. What is a Democrat? 

A. A member of that ])arty which before 
the rebellion sustaiiied every legislative act 
demanded by the slave-holders, such as the 
Fugitive Slave Law, and the attempt made to 
force slavery upon the Western Territories- 

Q. Who said that "a negro had no righta 
that a white man was bound to respect?" 

A. Chief Justice Taney, a Democrat. 

Q. Was this sentiment approved by the 
Democracy ? 






,.- ^ 

A. It was ; and by them only. 
Q. "Why did the Southern States rebel ? 
A. Because the Republican party in 1861 
elected Abraham Lincoln President, who 
was opposed to the extension of slavery. 

Q. What did they propose to do by re- 
bellion? 

A.. Establish a government of their own ; 
the corner-stone of which should be human 
slavery. 

Q. Did any leading rebel make such a 
declaration ? 

A. Yes ; Alexander II. Stephens, of 
Georgia, in a speech in May, 18G1, at Mont- 
gomery, Alabama. 

Q. What position did Mr. Stephens hold in 
ihe rebel Confederacy ? 
A. lie was their Vice President. 
Q. What was the position of the Demo- 
cratic party during the waY-? 

A. Jt opposed the war; declared Mr. 
Lincoln's management of it a failure ; re- 
sisted every measure in Congress looking to 
emancipation, and denounced the Govern- 
ment for employing colored men as soldiers. 
Q. What has that party done since the 
surrender of the rebels? . 

A. It has sustained Mr. Johnson in his 
efforts to restore your old masters to power 
in the country, and opposed every act for 
your benefit which the Republican Congress 
has adopted. 

Q. Would the Democrats make slaves of 
■the colored people again if they could ? 

A. It is finr to presume that they would, for 
they have ojiposed their freedom by every 
means, have always labored to extend sla- 
very, and would now try to deprive them of 
the right to vote, which they have always 
opposed in Congress and in the various State 
Legislatures. 

Q. Who abolished slavery in the District 
of Columbia? 

A. A Republican Congress and Abraham 
Lincoln, a Republican President. 
Q. Who freed the slaves in the South ? 
A. Abraham Lincoln, the Republican 
President, by proclamation. 

Q. Who made colored men soldiers? 
A. Tlie Republican party. 
Q. W ho opposed this ? 
A. The Democrats. 

Q. Who refused to recognize colored sol- 
diers as prisoners of war? 
A. '1-he rebels. 

Q. Cy whom were they murdered or used 
as slaves when captured? 

A. liy the rebel Government. 
Q. What parly sympathized with the rebel 
Government? 

A. The Democracy. 

Q. Who passed the Preedmen's Bureau 
bin? 

A. A Republicau Congress by more than 



a. two-thirds vote over the veto of Andrew 
Johnson, the leader of the Democratic or 
Conservative party. 

Q. Who gave us the Civil Rights bill ? 
A. The same Republican Congress. 
Q. What party gave us the right to vote ? 
A. The Republican party, through its 
m^ority in Congress- 

Q. What has the Democratic, Conserva- 
tive, or Copperhead party ever done for the 
colored people ? , 

A. Ithas tried to keep them in slavery, 
and opposed giving Miem the benefit of the 
Freedmen's Bureau and Civil Rights bills, 
and the right to vote. 

Q. Why cannot colored men support the 
Democratic party ? 

A. Because that party would disfranchise 
them, and, if possible, return them to sla- 
very, and certainly keep them in an inferior 
position before the law. 

Q. W^ith whom do the disloyal white men 
of the South desire the colored men to vote? 
A. With tlie Democratic party. 
Q. WTiy do the Democrats pretend to be 
the best friends of colored men? 

A. Because they contend they are of a 
lower race, and are, therefore, happier in an 
inferior position, or in slavery. 

Q, How would it suit them to be served in 
the same manner? 

A. They would not endure it. They call 
themselves a superior race of beings, and 
claim they are born your rulers. 

Q. Why do they not do unto others as they 
would be done by ? 

i A. Because they are devoid of principle, 
and destitute of all sense of justice where 
the colored man is concerned. 

Q. Do all white persons belong to a party 
which would treat us in that way ? 

A. They do not. There are many who 
have stood up nobly for you:r rights, and who 
will aid you to the end; indeed, all true Re- 
publicans are such. 

Q. Are there any white persons who have 
always contended for our liberty ? 
A. Yes ; there are many such. 
Q. To which party do these tried friends 
of ours now belong? ^ 

A. The Republican party. , --^ 

Q. To what party do the white people of 
the South belong ? , 

A. The larger portion belong to the Dem- 
ocratic party. 

Q. Are the former slave-holders and 
leaders of the rebellion members of that 
party ? 

j A. Most of them are ; they would not re- 
gard you as having any rights if they were 
in power. 

Q. Colored men should then vote with the 
Republican or Radical party? 
A. They should, and shun the DemocrrxtiiL, 






party as they would the overseer's lash and 
the auction block. 
Q. Has the Republican party deceived the 

colored people? 

A. It has not. While the Democratic 
party lias always been opposed to their free- 
dom, their education, ana their right to vote, 
the Republican party has maintained these 
rights. 

Q. By whose exertion are we now being 
educated ? 

A. By the efforts of loyal teachers and 
through the benevolence of Republican 
friends. 

Q. By whom have school-houses been 
burned, and our teachers persecuted,? 

A. By rebel friends »f the Democratic 
party. 

Q. Who passed the military Reconstruc- 
tion acts? 

A. The Republican majority in Congress. 

Q. By whom have the reconstructed States 
been admitted to Congress, under the new 
rVee constitutions? 

A. By the Republican party. 

Q. What would the people think if the 
(.olored men voted with the Democratic 
1 larty ? 

A. The people of the North would think 
that they did not fully understand their own 
rights nor the duties devolving on them ; and 
'.he people of the South would proudly say : 
''We have always told you that the negro did 
r.ot wish to be free." 

Q. What use has been made of the money 
which the colored people of the Southern 
States have paid as taxes ? 

A. II has been used to establish schools for 
icA?7e children ; to pay the expenses of mak- 
ing and executing laws in which the colored 
men have had no vaice, and in endeavoring 
to have set aside the laws which gives you 
the right to vote. 

,Q. We have been discharged from work 
because we voted with the Republicans. 
Who did it? 

A. Your former masters, who are all 
Southern Democrats. 

Q. How are we to live if they continue 
'.his course? 

A. You must remember that this is a rule 
lU*^ works both ways. Your labor is as val- 
uaule to the employer as the wages paid are 
to you. That game cannot be continued. 
In any event, you must defend your vote as 
yo,u wou4d your freedom. 

Q. Then you advise us to vote with the 
Republicans, and disregard the threats of 
our employers ? 

A. Most certainly I would. There is noth- 
ing dearer in life than liberty. To allow 
yourselves to be driven into voting against 
your convictions, is to accept degradation 
worse than slavery. 



Q. The white people South. say that north 
em Republicans do not care for the colored 
men only so far as they can use them to con- 
tinue in political power. Is that true ? 

A. It is not. 

Q. What is the reason that several of the 
northern States do not give us tke right tc 
vote ? 

A. Chiefly because they have in the past 
been controlled by the Democratic party. 
In the Western States where what are called 
the " Black Laws" have existed, which did 
not allow colored people to live in them, 
there are large bodies of whites who moved 
originally from the slave Stages, and carried 
the hatred and prejudices of slavery with 
them. 

Q. What has the Republican party done in 
those States about such laws? 

A. Abolished them as fast as it obtained 
power? 

Q. To what is the Republican party now 
committed? 

A. To equal rights for all men ; to the ad- 
vancement of labor and its elevation by just 
laws ; to common schools, open to all ; op- 
position to slavery in every form ; protec- 
tisn to free speech and a free press ; the 
maintenance of the rights of all men to 
vote and share in the Government under 
which they live ; the perpetual preservation 
of the Federal Union, and of the national 
honor by faithfully discharging all obliga- 
tions incurred in suppressing the late rebel- 
lion, and thereby enfranchising four million 
slaves- 

Q. How does" it propose to do these 
things? 

A. By electing loyal men to office ; by de- 
fending loyal State governments formed un- 
der and by authority of the Reconstruction 
laws, and above all by placing the Executive 
power of the General Government in the 
hands of those who favor the purposes of 
the Union Republican party. 

Q. How is the latter to be accomplished? 

A. By the election on Tuesday, the 3d 
day of November next, of General U. S. 
Grant and Honorable ScnuvLER Couax, 
the nominees of the Republican party for 
those high ofEces, as President and Vice Pres- 
ident of the United States. By their elec- 
tion, as well as the election or Republican 
Representatives to the Forty-first Congress, 
the Government will be placed in the hand? 
of its friends, and, consequently, of your 
defenders and emancipatcrs, for the Pre>i 
dential term beginning the 4th day of Marcli. 
1869, and ending on the same date, 187o. 

Q. What claim has General Grant on thi- 
colored man ': 

A. He is the successful leader of the Unioii 
armies who fought for freedom against the 
rebel armies, that sought to maintain sla- 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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013 786 542 7 



very. He defeated all the rebel Generals who 
opposed him, and finally received the surren- 
der of th« rebel army and its General-in-Chief, 
Koberi E. Lee. Early in the war, General 
(Jrant pronounced against slavery; declared 
that it must be destroyed in order to defeat the 
rebellion. He encouraged the enlistment of 
colored troop?, and directed all officers to 
aid in the work. He always recognized their 
courage and gave them honorable mention. 
Sii-ce the rebellion closed, he has been in 
chief command of the army, and has been 
charged with the protection of the loyal peo- 
ple of the South. Under his direction re- 
construction has succeeded to its present ex- 
tent. He has always'been in sympathy with 
the lo3'al majority o'f Congress, inopjtosition 
to the efforts of Andrew Johnson and the 
leaders of the Democratic party to restore 
the rebels to power, and thus virtually to 
re-enslave the freed people of the South. 

Q. \yho is ScnuYi.EH Colfax? 

A. He is Speaker of the Housa of Repre- 
sentatives, and has been a Republican mem- 
ber of Congress since 1855, having been first 
elected in opposition to the attempt then be- 
ing made by the Democratic party to force 
slavery on Kansas, against the will of the 
people. ^Ir. Colkax is an able man, upright 
and honorable in private character, an elo- 
quent speaker, and a faithful and sagacious 
statesman, whose voice and vote has always 
been cast for equal rights for all men. 

Q. Upon what platform, and where were 
they nominated ? 

A. They were nominated at Chicago, Mav 
20, 18f)8, by the Republican National Cor 
vention, which contained delegates from all 
the States, among them being many colored 
men, representatives elected by yourselves. 
The platform embraces the following points : 

1. Congratulates the country on the suc- 
cess of reconstruction, and declares it to bo 
the duty of the Government to sustain the 
free institutions established under them. 

2. Declares the guaranty by Congress in 
those laws of equal suffrage to be demanded 
alike by justice and the public safety. 

3. Denounces the Democratic doctrine of 
repudiation of the public debt as a crime. 

4. 5, and 0. Declares that taxation should 
ht- equalized and reduced ; that the payment 
of the national debt should l)c extended over 
a fair time, the rate of interest be reduced 
as far as possible, and that thobest way to 
do this is to preserve the public credit, so 
that capitalists will readily loan money on 
low rates. 

7. Declares that the General Govern- 



ment should be economically administei'ed, 
and that the corruptions fostered by Andrew 
Johnson should be sternly repressed. 

8. Deplores the untimely cleaCh of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, and declares Andrew John- 
son a betrayer of the trust reposed in him, 
and a usurper of unlawful power, for which 
he was properly impeached and pronounced 
guilty by the votes of tbirty-five Senators. 

9. Declares that all American citizens, 
whether native or foreign born, shall be pro- 
perly protected when traveling in foreign 
countries. 

10. Eulogizes the gallant soldiers who de- 
fended the Union, and declares that the 
widows and children of those who were slain 
in defense of freedom are the wards of the 
nation. 

11. Declares admiration for those former 
rebels who in the Southern States have aided 
reconstruction, and favors the earliest re- 
moval of disqualifications imposed upon them 
"in the same measure as their spirit of loyalty 
will direct, and as may be consistent with the 
safety of the loyal people." 

The I2th reads as follows : 

liesolved, That we recognize the great 
principles laid down in the immortal Decla- 
ration of Independence as the true^'fouiula- 
tion of democratic government, and we hail 
with gladness every effort toward making 
these principles a living reality on every inch 
of American soil. 

You have now before you the principles 
of the great Republican party ; you have 
'been with it through one campaign, and by 
your courage and energy have successfully 
reconstructed the former slave States on the 
basis of equal laws, education and liberty. 
Now yon ate asked to continue in the good 
work. The issue of this campaign for tha , 
election of Grant and Coi.pax will ensure, 
if you do your part well, the permanence 
of the governments you have helped to 
establish, and will preserve the liberties 
you know so well how to prize. Elect them 
and your rij^hts are ensured. They are your 
friends. Their party, uuder the lead of the 
mgirtyred Lincoln, proclaimed you free, and 
the Union armies, under the lead of Genera' 
Grant, have maintained and defended thiC 
freedom. Bee to it that your ballots go 
always in the same direction as their bullets. 
Organize for victory and the rebel Democ- 
racy will be defeated at the Iftallot-bi-x on 
the next 3d of November as completely as 
General U. S. Grant defeated Robert E. 
Lee and the rebel army .at Appomattox Court 
House, Virgiaia, April 9, 1865. 



I'RINTKI) AT THE OFKIOK OV THE GREAT REPUBLIC, WASHINGTON, D. 0. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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